


Gilded Cage

by AsagiStilinski



Series: Y-G-October 2018 [24]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Curses, Familiars, Figure skaters, Investigations, Kidnapping, M/M, Magic, Minor Character(s), Rescue, Witchcraft, Witches, figure skater Atem, figure skater Seto Kaiba, witch Yuugi Mutou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 06:51:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16403417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: "In other tragic news today, three-time gold medalist figure skater Atem Amyr has officially been missing for three days, police first received the call on Friday morning and have been searching ever since but to no avail, it seems to be yet another terrible loss for the figure skating world, as just last month, gold medalist and three-time silver medalist Seto Kaiba also went missing, he still has not been found, police-"He turned the radio off, followed by the car engine, and stared forward, his eyes focused and firmThe house just ahead of him was where he would find that missing skater, he knew itDay 24 of Y-G-October 2018





	Gilded Cage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Finaiarel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finaiarel/gifts).



> Day 24 from this challenge http://horrificmemes.tumblr.com/post/177941943723/its-that-tiiiime-just-like-last-fall-im-giving "Basement"
> 
> I just really wanted something with Ice Skater!Atem but I'm definitely going to have to do a fuller fic with that theme later since I barely used it here

_"In other tragic news today, three-time gold medalist figure skater Atem Amyr has officially been missing for three days, police first received the call on Friday morning and have been searching ever since but to no avail, it seems to be yet another terrible loss for the figure skating world, as just last month, gold medalist and three-time silver medalist Seto Kaiba also went missing, he still has not been found, police-"_

He turned the radio off, followed by the car engine, and stared forward, his eyes focused and firm

The house just ahead of him was where he would find that missing skater, he knew it

With determination sinking into his bones, he wasted no more time in sliding out of the car and grabbing the box he needed from the back of the car, making his way towards the house

He needed to be discrete, that meant not leaving his car in plain sight, so unfortunately it was a bit of a walk

But that was alright, he didn't mind navigating through the woods- through the trees and the leaves and the forestscape- to get to his destination

He was determined to rescue the missing skater

It had been bad enough when Seto Kaiba had gone missing and Yugi had foolishly waited for the police to find him, but after he heard of Atem's disappearance...

Obviously the incidents were connected, and who knew how many more would fall victim to whatever strange circumstances these were?

Without a single shred of hesitation, he approached the door to the massive mansion- wich looked entirely out of place in such a heavily wooded area, for the record- and rang the doorbell

He waited.... waited.....

"Delivery for Maximilian Pegasus?"

"Oh! My, it came earlier than I expected, I'm just going to love having this set up wile I cook,"

Yugi waited a beat as the silver-haired man took the package, and surely enough, the moment his skin touched the box, the potion he had laced it with kicked in, and the stranger fell over, deep in sleep

Smirking slightly to himself, Yugi hurried to take his gloves off and ran into the house, pulling his wand out from his sleeve and giving it a quick flick

"Come on Kuri, show me where he is," he commanded softly, watching in mild delight as a soft wisp of energy took the form of a ferret and began bounding through the house

Following was no easy feat, trying to navigate doors and staircases and keep track of where he was in relation to the front door wile simultaneously following a magically crafted ferret, but he managed, right up until he got to the door, where Kuri stopped dead in her tracks

With a simple nod from Yugi, he muttered a spell under his breath and watched with satisfaction and releif as the lock on the door was blown off, letting it swing wide open, and giving him the chance to enter

The door lead to a staircase, a basement apparently, and with another quick spell under his breath, the lights soon flickered on

He raced down the stairs as quickly as he could wile still being carefull, trying his best to avoid stepping on any potential loose nails or splinters, and feeling his heart race faster and faster in his chest the further he went

It was almost impossible to put into words, what he was feeling, but it was.... it was as if he knew in the deepest part of his soul that he was about to come across something life-changing

For better or worse, he wasn't sure, he didn't care, he just knew that he needed to get to it

It only took rounding one corner before he spotted _exactly_ what that life-changing thing was

Laying on the floor, eyes barely open, was the missing figure skater

He was still wearing his costume and skates, with his hands bound behind him and his ankles chained to the floor

He looked ... he looked....

Yugi shook his head quickly, not allowing himself to believe the worst as he rushed towards him and nelt down, very gently taking the stranger's face in his hands and gently rubbing against his icy skin, immediately anxious as to just how freezing cold he was

"Atem? Atem can you hear me?"

The skater glanced up at him, he looked like he wanted to say something but just... couldn't muster up the strength

"Shh, it's ok now, it's alright, I'm here, I'm here to save you... everything will be alright now, I promise,"

Using magic to undo the restraints was the easy part, but actually getting Atem- who was a few inches taller than Yugi was, and who was _definitely_ heavier due to muscle mass- out of here when he was essentially dead weight...

That was going to prove to be the problem

 

~+~

 

It had taken Yugi quite a bit of time and effort to work it out, but finally he had managed to get the skater to his car and get him home

He had called the police on Pegasus, explained the situation and crafted some false story about Atem being a relative of his- not hard for them to believe, with their admittedly similar looks- and how he had found one of Pegasus' business cards in Atem's apartment earlier when looking around there

It had taken some convincing and a little bit of magic, but finally he had managed to weave a story that suited the police enough to make their arrest and simultaneously let Atem stay with him until he woke up, at wich point he would need to go down to the police station and give a statement

That had been two days ago

Atem had been sleeping for two days straight now, having gone out like a light once Yugi got him home and gave him a little tea to help him relax

Apparently he'd been pumped full of sedatives, according to the read out his magic had given once Yugi had gotten the chance to actually examine him

It was a wonder how he had been awake at all when Yugi found him, and it certainly explained the state he had been in

Finally though, after two days of sleeping it off- so to speak- Atem opened his eyes again, and the first sight he saw was-

"Yugi... your .. name is Yugi... right?"

"That's right, I see you remember some of our previous conversation, that's good, then this should go alot more smoothly, what do you remember of your time with Pegasus? Anything at all? Is there anything you can tell me abo-"

"Save them..." Atem mumbled, his eyes, still somewhat foggy and unfocused, blurry, but making a point of staring straight up at Yugi now

For a moment, the smaller of the two was confused, reaching out to very gently stroke his hair

"Atem... what-"

"Pegasus ... has them in boxes.... please.... save them...."

In boxes, so did that mean...?

"You... know where he has them burried?" Yugi asked quietly, leaning a little bit closer, gently sweeping his fingers through the other's hair

"Not burried," the skater corrected quickly

"Then... I don't under-"

"Take me back... back to the basement.... I'll show you..."

 

~+~

 

Typically, Yugi never would have done something so foolish as to take a him on such a journey when he was still so unwell, but if there was a chance to save the other missing skater, even the smallest chance, then he wanted to take it

Still, he wasn't going to take Atem's health for granted, the first sign of something being wrong, and he was ending this recklessness and taking him back home

"Are you sure you're alright being here?" the witch asked quietly, watching as the skater took a hesitant step towards the house, staring up at the massive building with obvious discontent, but ultimately walking forward anyway

"'I'm positive, but.. how do we get in?"

There was police tape everywhere, locks no doubt double the amount of what Yugi had seen the first time

"Just leave that to me," the witch promised with a gentle smile, pulling his wand out of his sleeve again and giving it an easy flick, much to Atem's surprise

"You're a witch... is that how you knew I was here?"

"It is, I did a tracking spell, it wasn't hard to find you," Yugi shrugged back

The magical community had been "out" to the human world for about twenty years now, and although things were far from well adjusted, they were peacefull enough that most magical folk felt safe in coming out casually to humans they didn't feel threatened by

"That's... really very neat, though may I ask... what is it that made you want to find me to begin with?"

"What can I say? I'm a big figure skating fan," the witch smiled back, gently taking Atem's hand as he lead him through the now open door, ducking under police tape here and stepping over evidence blocks there

"Do you know why Pegasus took you in the first place?"

"He... wanted to add me to his collection," the skater replied simply, his words a bit stunted and quiet as he stepped in front of the witch and began leading Yugi throughout the house

"His collection?"

"He's been collecting talented people for... I'm not sure, years? Probably years... that's what I've been trying to tell you, he collects talent and puts the holders of said talent in boxes, like.... dolls, little dolls acting out his will, to watch as he pleased,"

"I don't understand..."

"No, but you will soon,"

Yugi trusted that, Atem was smart and capable, even though he was in a weak state, he was alert and quick-witted, the smaller male had no doubts that he was telling the truth in some shape or form

It was just a matter of figuring out what that form was

The skater stepped into the kitchen, over to the basement door, and hesitantly reached out

"Wait," Yugi ordered quickly

He gave Atem a gentle smile before pulling his wand forth once again and forcing the basement door open

"I um, figured you may not want to touch it..."

"I see, thank you then," the skater smiled gently, stepping aside to allow Yugi the opportunity to flick the lights on before beginning to lead his companion down the stairs

"You may need to unlock another door for me, I'm afraid,"

"Don't worry about it, locks are one of my specialties,"

"And what are your other specialties?" Atem asked curiously

"I'll have to show you some day," Yugi winked playfully, his expression faltering as he looked up and saw exactly what Atem had meant about locked doors

The door in front of him wasn't a typical door, nor was it sealed with typical locks, it looked more like the door to some sort of _chamber_ than to a standard room, it was a big concrete slab, for the most part, with a massive locking mechanism, and from the looks of it, it was guarded against unlocking spells and reinforced with magic, to keep any sort of brute force from opening it...

"Can you do it?" Atem asked anxiously, arms wrapping around his chest as he peered over Yugi's shoulder

"Yeah... I can, it's just going to take a little wile,"

Atem nodded slowly, deciding to use that as his permission to calmly and quietly sink down against the wall and wrap his arms around his legs, head leaned back and eyes closing

"I will wait for as long as needed, if you need anything, please, do let me know,"

"Don't worry about that," Yugi said with a small sigh, staring up at the impressive line of locks

"I'm sure I will sooner or later...."

 

~+~

 

The sound of stone scraping against stone seemed to be what awoke Atem from his breif nap, his face visibly tired as he turned his head up to look at the witch above him

"You got the door open," the skater observed, rubbing his eyes tiredly and blinking with mild surprise when Yugi offered him his hand to help him up to his feet

"I did, yes, it took me quite a bit of time but... eventually I managed, do you need to go back to sleep? No offense but you still look exhausted,"

"I'll still be exhausted for quite sme time I'm sure, but the quickest way for me to find rest is to get this over with and rescue the others," Atem replied with a a forced smile, taking Yugi's hand and pulling himself up to his feet

"That's your call then," the witch promised softly, squeezing Atem's soothingly as the skater began leading them into the room, reaching up to pull on a thin chain hanging from the ceiling, thus turning on a single lightbulb

It wasn't alot of light, but it was enough for Yugi to get a veiw of what was around them

They were surrounded by large shelves, like a pantry or a small cellar, and each shelf was stacked with ornate boxes, snowglobes, jars, aquariums, and other such containers, and each of those contained... a person...

A tiny, moving, person

"A-Are these.... real people...?"

"As real as you and I,"

"How did you even find out about this?" Yugi breathed, taking a slow step further into the room and picking up a random box, opening it up to reveal a beautifull violin player standing in the center, playing her violin, completely unaware of anything else around her

"He thought I was asleep, he untied me and brought me in here, started some sort of spell.... I wasn't asleep, I broke the snowglobe he was intending to put me in, we fought... apparently I was still too drugged out to get far, he had me tied up again before I could so much as get out of the basement, but that little scene of mine not only bought me time- I think he had to order another one of those globes, I didn't see him again after that- it also showed me where the other captives were,"

"So he keeps them in here for entertainment... dancers and musicians and artists... just like little figurines, but real..."

"Precisely, I think in order for it to work, the victim must be asleep, I wonder if they're all living a dream like this..." Atem mused, reaching up onto one of the shelves and carefully pulling down a snowglobe, this one containing a skier, seeming to go down the same slope over and over again...

"That makes sense, I've heard of spells like that," Yugi mused with a small nod, taking a step back

The only problem was going to be waking them all up....

"How do we release them?"

"Well, in theory, breaking the object they're bound to should work...."

"But you aren't sure? What if breaking the object they're bound to kills them?"

"No no, it won't do that, it's just ... I'm not sure how strongly the spell is bound to the objects, breaking the objects may set them free physically but not mentally, they may still be in the dream states even after we set them free, sadly there's no real way to know until we start,"

Atem nodded slowly, staring into the snowglobe he was holding before taking a shaking breath

"Then let us begin,"

And with that, he tossed the globe to the ground

 

~+~

 

"You said that Seto Kaiba was here, are you sure?" Yugi asked with a tired sigh, reaching into the very back of the bottom shelf and uncovering nothing but another music box

Without hesitation, he took the miniature ax he had summoned and smashed it down onto the box, watching the wood splinter into bits and peices as a soft, lavender fog imminated from the peices and a beautifull young pianist fell out with a quiet groan

"Are you alright?" the witch asked quietly, gently reaching out to place a hand on the stranger's back as he slowly lifted himself into a sitting position and blinked the fog out of his eyes

"I- ... where am I....?"

"It's a long story, we'll tell you later," Atem answered softly as he reached out to gently help the other to his feet

"Wait... aren't you Duke Devlin? The concert pianist who went missing four months ago?"

"Yeah that's me.... last time I do private meet-and-greets after the show," he sighed quietly, pressing a hand tiredly to his head

"Pegasus really _has_ been at this more than I would have thought," Yugi mused with a quiet sigh, forcing a smile as he gently instructed the musician on where to go, to wait for them until they were finished with the room and could call reinforcements to help the other captives get home- or to a hospital, depending

"To answer your previous question, yes, I know for a fact Seto is around here somewhere, his was the first snowglobe I saw," Atem answered with an exhausted sigh, leaning back against the wall behind him

"Well that was the last container, so he must have put Kaiba's someplace else,"

"Is there a way you can track him? Like you did with me?"

"Sadly no, this sort of spell inhibits tracking functions, because the captives are technically held in another dimension, their spiritual footprint goes off the grid,"

Atem slowly raised an eyebrow, staring at his smaller companion with a slightly soft expression

"I must say, your magic talk is confusing, but attractive,"

"Thanks, I'll be sure to tell the higher powers," Yugi teased back, biting his lip and tapping his chin

"Where would Pegasus most want to see a figure skater...?"

Think back.... what was Pegasus like when he answered the door?

Maybe that would help him come to an answer...

_"Oh! My, it came earlier than I expected, I'm just going to love having this set up wile I cook,"_

"The kitchen," Yugi said quickly, grabbing Atem's hand and rushing out of the small room and up the stairs

Wasting no time, he hurried to drag the human into the kitchen, eyes scanning around the small room and lighting up with releif and joy when he spotted a small blue globe resting on the kitchen counter, next to a large cookie jar

Surely enough, when Yugi approached it, a single glance inside showed him what he wanted to see

Seto Kaiba, skating in circles as snow rained down around him

"Gottcha," he said quietly to himself, picking up the snowglobe and pausing, glancing at Atem over his shoulder and smiling sweetly

"Would you like to do the honors?"

Atem merely shook his head, placing a hand on the globe just so he could gently push it back towards his companion

"You go on ahead,"

That was all Yugi needed to hear before smashing the glass as hard as he could against the kitchen counter

 

~+~

 

"You know," Atem mused slowly, staring down at the mug of hot chocolate that his new freind had brought to him

"I'm relieved that all of this is over, but I can't help feeling a bit... as though I wish there was something else we could do together after, another mystery to solve or.... something,"

"I know what you mean," Yugi agreed, sitting down on the couch next to him and taking a sip of his tea

"You and I make a pretty good team, it's a shame to see it end,"

"As is to see that you are no longer playing detective, you are quite good at it,"

"Well thank you, you aren't too bad at it yourself,"

Atem only smiled, stirring his hot chocolate with his spoon and allowing his head to fall to the side

"If only I were a witch, perhaps we could do something together..."

"What about skating?"

"Oh I intend to keep skating for now ofcourse but... I'll have to retire someday, I was just thinking, something to do in our spare time... solving mysteries, helping people..."

"Saving people, hunting things, the family business?" Yugi guessed

"Oh, and a Supernatural fan at that, you really are a treat aren't you?" Atem smirked playfully

"Oh you think so?" Yugi laughed, taking a sip of his tea and pausing, his face mellowing out into a softer, gentler expression

"You're really interested in doing something like this with me?"

"Ofcourse, but I feel that, as a human, I'm only holding you back,"

"Nonsense, though I do think that if you're going to go into something like this you could use a little magical protection... I may not be able to turn you into a witch, but there _is_ something else I can do with you,"

Atem raised a curious eyebrow, head tilting as he stared at his companion

"Oh, do tell,"

 

**Four months later....**

"Are you ready for this sweetheart?"

"As ready as always," Atem replied with a purr, a loving smile on his face as he leaned down to give his partner a gentle kiss to the cheek

With that, the witch merely nodded, watching in slight delight as a black fog surrounded Atem, and soon, a black cat stood where his boyfreind once had

The cat wasted no time in leaning close, rubbing his cheek sweetly against the witch's leg, before they began walking down the trail towards the graveyard they were about to investigate

"Come on then, my familiar, let's go solve a mystery,"


End file.
